


Checkmate

by Kittywu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, death with not much plot, prince kuroo and butler tsukki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 09:52:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5000254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywu/pseuds/Kittywu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tetsurou’s entire body felt heavy and it was an act of all his remaining strength to hide the pain that he is feeling. And yet, he somewhere found even more strength in his body to look at the chessboard in front of him and to think about his next move.<br/>Maybe he would win his last game against Kei."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Checkmate

**Author's Note:**

> if you follow me on twitter or tumblr you might have seen that i recently watched hxh and well, the death scene of meruem who is voiced by tsukki's voice actor kinda inspired this. 
> 
> the music that did the rest of the inspiration: [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnKfa0xly6o)

“Kuroo, are you still there?” His voice was tired, faint. There was no hint of his usual sarcasm or his sharp tongue.

“Of course, I’m right here, Kei.” He looked at him, and his eyes were distant and foggy. He wasn’t sure if Kei was still seeing anything or if he even processed what he saw.

“Are you tired?” he asked, even though he didn’t need an answer. He was tired too, incredibly tired. Tetsurou’s entire body felt heavy and it was an act of all his remaining strength to hide the pain that he is feeling. And yet, he somewhere found even more strength in his body to look at the chessboard in front of him and to think about his next move.

Maybe he would win his last game against Kei.

\--

The first time they had met, they had played chess as well. They had been younger back then, the prince and the apprentice butler and the game their only reason to talk to each other.

“The head butler mentioned you knew how to play chess,” Tetsurou said. Kei was standing next to the door, his gaze straight ahead.

“Yes, your majesty,” he answered.

And then they played. Tetsurou lost. It hadn’t even taken Kei a lot of moves to checkmate him.

“You’re really good at this,” he told him with a smile.

“I just played a lot before I started working here, your majesty,” Kei answered.

“Don’t make yourself smaller than you are. I demand a rematch, this time I won’t lose.”

“Of course, your majesty,” Kei said.

And then they played again. And again. Tetsurou never won.

\--

“I can still play, it is nothing bad,” Kei told him. He tried to smile, but the only thing his smile looked like was pain. With a shaky hand, he moved his knight.

“That’s checkmate, I guess,” Tetsurou said. He hoped that his smile looked more convincing than Kei’s. “I’ll win the next one, though.”

Their hands met as they rearranged the pieces on the board. This time, Kei’s smile looked more genuine. “You’re still here,” Kei said. Maybe it was relief in his voice, maybe it was concern. Kuroo intertwined their fingers, his thumb gently caressing the back of Kei’s.

“I’ll stay here with you until the very end,” he said. “I won’t leave you.”

\--

The night after their first game, Tetsurou realised that he had never asked for the blond butler’s name. He thought about his delicate features, his golden eyes and his elegant hands. He thought about he never even had to frown during their games. He fell asleep thinking about the sound of his voice.

\--

In hindsight, Tetsurou wanted to call it love at first sight. At that time, he hadn’t been aware that he was in love with Kei though. He wasn’t entirely sure how much Kei was believing that he was in love with him even now.

He had told Kei countless times, while they had been playing chess, between kisses, under the stars. And yet, he knew that Kei wasn’t sure if he was allowed to believe him. Because a prince doesn’t fall in love with his butler. And a butler is certainly not allowed to fall in love with a prince.

“I love you, Kei,” he said, he pulled Kei’s hand towards his mouth, kissed the back of his hand.

“There was no need for you to die with me, Kuroo,” he said.

Kuroo sighed in response and kissed his hand once again. “I told you. I’m not going to leave you. And at least now you could call me Tetsurou.”

“I can’t, you’re still the prince after all. I shouldn’t even call you Kuroo, your –“

“Don’t you dare, Kei. And it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m dethroned and there is no kingdom. So you might as well call me Tetsurou.”

\--

“Checkmate, your majesty,” Kei said. He looked pleased with himself, he pushed his glassed up with his middle finger.

“You know, you don’t have to call me ‘your majesty’ all the time,” he was smirking himself, because he liked to tease Kei, and this was his favourite way to tease him. He liked the fiery spark in Kei’s eyes when he teased back, he liked the subtle blush that sometimes spread over Kei’s face.

Then again, there were only a few things that he wanted as much as to hear Kei calling him by his name. Maybe to win against him at least once. To have more time to play against him. And to kiss him.

“You know very well what would happen if anyone would hear me calling you anything but ‘your majesty’.”

With a sigh, he leaned back in his armchair. “Just once. And there is no one around right now who could hear it anyways. Only me.”

“Maybe if you win the next game,” Kei said. “Well, your majesty, can you?”

They both knew the truth, that Kei would be in big trouble if anyone would hear him talk to him like that. Even though he was way more for Tetsurou, he was his butler. He probably had his own reasons to hold onto addressing him with ‘your majesty’, to keep at least some distance between them. And they both knew that so far, Kei had won every time. And that so far, Tetsurou hadn’t even been close to checkmating Kei.

“If that’s what it takes to get you to call me by my name, Tsukki.”

\--

“Shall we play another game?” Kei asked. He looked like it was incredibly exhausting to even keep sitting upright.

“The loser may die first,” Tetsurou answered. Kei made an attempt to laugh about his cynical joke, but it resolved in a pained moan.

\--

Tetsurou wasn’t sure how he got Kei to sneak out with him. And he wasn’t sure how it had happened that he was holding his hand. But both of those things were reality, they were sitting on a lonely hill together, the only one who could see them was the moon above them.

“I don’t want to think about how deep in trouble I am if anyone finds out about this,” Kei said. His skin was cold in Tetsurou’s warm hand, his eyes were glued to the silvery full moon.

Tetsurou’s eyes were glued to Kei’s profile, his eyes trailed down his forehead, the line of his nose, the curve of his lips, his chin. His heartbeat felt faster than normal in his chest.

“Then don’t think about it. And just like you said: _if_ someone finds out. We’ll just make sure that no one finds out.”

If it had been just their hands that were touching, maybe Tetsurou would have been able to stay a little calmer. But it was more of a question where they didn’t touch, his ankle was right at Kei’s calf, his thigh leaned against Kei’s. The way they were, it was close to unbearable. He took a deep breath, he tried to assemble all the courage that was inside of him.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked, and he nearly tripped over those four words.

There was a moment of silence, where Kei looked at him, eyes opened wide with surprise. “Yes,” he said then.

Their lips didn’t meet for long, a few seconds maybe. Kei’s lips were dry, and Tetsurou didn’t dare to do more than to brush over them. And even though their kiss was brief, it made him feel like he was flying.

“Kuroo,” Kei whispered as he looked into his eyes.

And then he smiled, a smile that looked brighter than the silver moon above them.

\--

The wound on his back stung badly, every time Tetsurou moved. He felt nauseous, everything in his head slightly dulled out. Breathing got harder with every breath he took. So he would die without having defeated Kei even once. He couldn’t care less, at least he got to die together with him.

“I can let you win our last game,” Kei said as if he could read his mind.

“It doesn’t count if I can’t even win fair and square against you.” Kei’s smile, even though it looked pained and exhausted, even though it wasn’t even half as bright as the moon of the night of their first kiss, was still the most beautiful sight Tetsurou had ever seen.

\--

“Kei, will I ever win against you?” Tetsurou asked with a pout. He picked up a bishop and started to gently poked Kei’s cheek with it.

“Probably,” Kei answered and took the bishop out of Tetsurou’s hand.

“What are you even doing right now?” With a laugh, Tetsurou leaned over the board and took Kei’s hand into his.

“Teasing you.”

“I see. You are aware that I won’t go easy on you if you don’t stop, right?”

It was a funny thing of him to say, he had never gone easy on him and Tetsurou was glad he hadn’t. And he didn’t look annoyed at all, he was blushing slightly, his face turned away in hope that Tetsurou wouldn’t notice.

“Then I’ll never stop,” he said, kissed Kei’s knuckles and let his leg brush against Kei’s under the table.

“You sure are a pain.”

And yet, he smiled as he felt Tetsurou’s lips on his hand. And yet, the only word that came into Tetsurou’s mind if he would have wanted to describe the look in Kei’s eyes was ‘loving’.

“How am I supposed to defeat you even once if you had my heart checkmated from the start?”

Kei’s chuckle was soft, warm. He shook his head and rubbed his head as if Tetsurou was giving him a headache. “You really are awful, Kuroo.”

“But that’s why you love me.”

“Maybe.”

“And that’s why I love you.”

“What?” He stared at him, his motion frozen in place.

“I love you, Kei,” Tetsurou said, realising it was the first time he had said it.

“You’re the prince,” Kei said, slowly taking his hand out of Tetsurou’s. “You can’t love me.”

“I do, though.”

There was silence between them, the clock on the wall ticking in the background as if it wanted to remind them of the time they had.

\--

Time had been, in fact, very limited for them. They just hadn’t been aware of it. And especially now, their time was limited. Tetsurou could feel his time running out.

“I’m sorry,” Kei said. He wasn’t sorry that Tetsurou would die without having won against him once. He was sorry that Tetsurou was dying.

“I would have died sooner or later anyways. Do you really think they’d spare the heir to the throne just like that? Why continue playing if you’re already checkmated.”

The king had been the first to die.

“But –“

“No buts. Maybe we were born for this moment, to meet the way we did, to fall in love and to die together because of the poisoned knife of a revolutionary.”

And for the first time, he was the one who couldn’t stand Kei’s gaze. Because it was Kei’s death that could have been avoided, not his. Kei was the one who was dying because of him.

\--

Kei’s head rested in his lap. His face was calm and content, his breathing even and relaxed. Tetsurou ran his hand through his blond hair, playing with the strands between his fingers.

“I want to be like this with you forever,” he said and closed his eyes. A simple thought, a simple wish. But even he was aware how close to impossible it was.

“But one day you’ll have to leave me.” Kei gulped, his expression suddenly more serious. Then he sat up again and looked at Tetsurou. “That’s how it is, you’re going to marry some aristocratic woman, have children, become king.”

“I will not love her though. Because I love you. And if I can, I will be with you until the very end, and even if I can’t, I won’t stop loving you until I die.”

“I’m scared of the day where we will have to part,” Kei said. And then Tetsurou noticed the small tears that were glistening in the corners of Kei’s eyes. He wiped them away with his thumb, kissed his lips.

“I won’t leave you.” Kei nodded even though they both knew.

\--

“Kuroo, are you still there?” Kei was pale, way paler than usual, paler than he had been during the last fifteen minutes. The bloodstain on his shirt was starting to grow again, he probably had moved a bit too much and the wound had opened again. His breathing was uneven.

“Of course. I’m right here, Kei,” he said, trying to hide his own pain as best as he could. With every second that passed, it was harder for him to pretend he was even slightly better off than Kei.

“I’m tired,” Kei said. “I think I’m going to sleep for a while. We can continue when I wake up, if that would be alright.”

Tetsurou bit his lip, he needed to supress his own pain, and he needed to supress his tears. “Yes, and I’ll definitely win the next game.”

“Then I’m going to lay down for a bit.” There wasn’t that much left of Kei’s voice, it was more of a breath than an actual voice. He winced in pain as he laid down. “Will you wait here until I wake up?”

Slowly, Tetsurou moved towards Kei. “I’m going to hold your hand until then.”

Kei’s palm felt cold, colder than his own. Dry and cold. He tried to ignore the stinging pain on his back as he leaned down and kissed Kei’s forehead. “I love you, Kei. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Kuroo.”

He placed his other hand onto Kei’s cheek, he could feel Kei’s faint breaths on his skin. “Goodnight, Kei.” Another kiss onto his forehead and at last, his lips. “Goodnight.”

“See you again soon, Tetsurou.”

**Author's Note:**

> [12.10.2015 09:27:13] makimore: heidi... what if I wrote a krtsk fic... based on meruems death in hxh  
> [12.10.2015 09:27:26] Hidi: WH  
> [12.10.2015 09:27:30] Hidi: FIRST OF ALL  
> [12.10.2015 09:27:45] Hidi: that's going to bring in a lot of pain  
> [12.10.2015 09:28:10] makimore: (:
> 
> i hope you enjoyed it ^w^


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